BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Schweickart was born October 25, 1935, in Neptune, NJ.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and Master of Science in aeronautics and astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

EXPERIENCE: Following graduation, he served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard from 1956 to 1963, logging 4,200 hours of flight time, 3,500 in jet aircraft. During part of this period he worked as a research scientist in the Experimental Astronomy Laboratory at MIT.

Schweickart was selected by NASA in October 1963. He was Lunar Module for Apollo 9, a ten day earth orbit flight launched March 3, 1969. Together with David R. Scott and James McDivitt, Schweickart conducted first Ďall-up' test of the complete set of Apollo moon-landing hardware. McDivitt and Schweickart separated the Lunar Module and flew 180 km from Scott and the Command Module before manoeuvring back to redock with the Command Module. Schweickart also went on a 46 minute space walk to test the new spacesuit model that astronauts would later use on the moon.

Schweickart later moved to NASA Headquarters in Washington as Director of User Affairs in the Office of Applications, responsible for transferring NASA technology to the outside world. He then held several technology-related positions with the California state government, including Assistant to the Governor for Science and Technology. In 1979, he was named Chairman of the California Energy Commission. Later Schweickart was president of Aloha Networks.

Apollo 204 Crew: Chaffee, Grissom, White. The first manned flight of the Apollo CSM, the Apollo C category mission. Crew killed in a fire while testing their capsule on the pad on 27 January 1967, still weeks away from launch. Set back Apollo program by 18 months. Backup crew: McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart, Schirra,
Eisele, Cunningham. More...

Apollo 9 Crew: McDivitt, Schweickart, Scott. First manned test of the Lunar Module. First test of the Apollo space suits. First manned flight of a spacecraft incapable of returning to earth. If rendezvous of the Lunar Module with the Apollo CSM had failed, crew would have been stranded in orbit. Backup crew: Bean, Conrad, Gordon. More...

Skylab 2 Crew: Conrad, Kerwin, Weitz. Record flight duration. Crew had to conduct major repairs to get damaged station in operation. Astronaut flung into space during release of solar wing. High temperatures in station brought down by deployment of sunshade. Backup crew: McCandless, Musgrave, Schweickart. More...

Associated Manufacturers and Agencies

USAF American agency overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft. United States Air Force, USA. More...

Skylab First and only US space station to date. Project began life as Apollo Orbital Workshop - outfitting of an S-IVB stage with docking adapter with equipment launched by several subsequent S-1B launches. Curtailment of the Apollo moon landings meant that surplus Saturn V's were available, so the pre-equipped, five times heavier, and much more capable Skylab resulted. More...

NASA Astronaut Training Group 3 selected. - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Aldrin; Anders; Bassett; Bean; Cernan; Chaffee; Collins; Cunningham; Eisele; Freeman; Gordon; Schweickart; Scott; Williams, Clifton. The group was selected to provide crew members for planned Apollo missions (then planned as 4 Saturn I missions in 1965, 2-4 Saturn IB missions in 1966, 6 Saturn V missions from 1967).. Qualifications: Qualified jet pilot with minimum 1,000 flight-hours, bachleor's degree in engineering or physical or biological sciences, under 35 years old, under 183 cm height, excellent health. US citizen.. There were 271 applications, 200 from civilians (including two women) and 71 from military pilots (including two African-Americans). President Kennedy pushed for NASA to appoint a black astronaut, but neither of the applicants met the test pilot requirements. Bobby Kennedy arranged for one of these, USAF Captain Edward Dwight, to be enrolled in the USAF Test Pilot school. He graduated, and then had the necessary qualifications. He was 28 years old, an engineering school graduate, and a B-57 bomber command pilot with 2,000 hours flying time. However NASA did not find him as well qualified as other candidates, and he was not among the 32 chosen for final physical and mental tests.

From these 32, the final 14 were selected. Of them, four would die (two in a T-38 crash, one in a car crash, and one in the Apollo 204 ground fire) before flying in space. All of the ten remaining would fly in the Apollo program.

On March 5 McDivitt and Schweickart entered the LM through the docking
tunnel, evaluated the LM systems, transmitted the first of two series of
telecasts, and fired the LM descent propulsion system. They then
returned to the CM.

McDivitt and Schweickart reentered the LM on March 6. After transmitting
a second telecast, Schweickart performed a 37-minute extravehicular
activity (EVA), walking between the LM and CSM hatches, maneuvering on
handrails, taking photographs, and describing rain squalls over KSC.

On March 7, with McDivitt and Schweickart once more in the LM, Scott
separated the CSM from the LM and fired the reaction control system
thrusters to obtain a distance of 5.5 kilometers between the two
spacecraft. McDivitt and Schweickart then performed a lunar-module
active rendezvous. The LM successfully docked with the CSM after being
up to 183.5 kilometers away from it during the six-and-one-half-hour
separation. After McDivitt and Schweickart returned to the CSM, the LM
ascent stage was jettisoned.

During the remainder of the mission, the crew tracked Pegasus
III, NASA's meteoroid detection satellite that had been launched
July 30, 1965; took multispectral photos of the earth; exercised the
spacecraft systems; and prepared for reentry.

Skylab 2 , consisting of a modified Apollo CSM payload and a Saturn IB launch vehicle, was inserted into Earth orbit approximately 10 minutes after liftoff. The orbit achieved was 357 by 156 km and, during a six-hour period following insertion, four maneuvers placed the CSM into a 424 by 415 km orbit for rendezvous with the Orbital Workshop. Normal rendezvous sequencing led to stationkeeping during the fifth revolution followed by a flyaround inspection of the damage to the OWS. The crew provided a verbal description of the damage in conjunction with 15 minutes of television coverage. The solar array system wing (beam) 2 was completely missing. The solar array system wing (beam) 1 was slightly deployed and was restrained by a fragment of the meteoroid shield. Large sections of the meteoroid shield were missing. Following the flyaround inspection, the CSM soft-docked with the OWS at 5:56 p.m. EDT to plan the next activities. At 6:45 p.m. EDT the CSM undocked and extravehicular activity was initiated to deploy the beam 1 solar array. The attempt failed. Frustration of the crew was compounded when eight attempts were required to achieve hard docking with the OWS. The hard dock was made at 11:50 p.m. EDT, terminating a Skylab 2 first-day crew work period of 22 hours.